Ace of Spades

Game Title: Ace of Spades

Platform(s): PC

Stars (out of 5): 3.5

Content issues: It's a shooting game, but is not bloody or gory and doesn't feel violent either.

Brief Summary: It has a blocky aesthetic similar to Minecraft, but it is a competitive shooting game rather than an exploration and building game.

Like: The different game modes are very fun. The ability to destroy the blocks in the world is a really great addition to the gameplay. Building things with blocks feels difficult and clunky to me, so I don't do that as often. The best part about this game though is playing it with friends and the really special moments that arise naturally from the gameplay. For example, I was playing with my brother-in-law and we decided to attack the enemy by mining out the foundation of their base. When we removed the last block from the foundation, the entire building came crashing down. It was a supremely enjoyable moment.

Dislike: Sometimes it is hard to find a match with enough players in it for it to be fun. That is a typical challenge with a game like this. Unless the game is massively popular, there may not be enough active players to make the game worth playing.

Replayability: This game does not have a single-player mode, and is therefore intended to be infinitely replayable. It is enjoyable and fun and the game modes take quite a while to get boring, so I would say that the replayability level is high, but perhaps not infinite.

How would I make it better: If I had made this game I would have made it a persistent would like Minecraft, where players can build forts and whatever else they want, and then they can attack whenever they want and the game just goes on and on. Not match based. 

Adam's Venture. Episode I: The Search for the Lost Garden

Game Title: Adam's Venture. Episode I: The Search for the Lost Garden

Platform(s): PC

Stars (out of 5): 2.5 - 3.0

Content issues: No offensive material. It even has a biblical theme.

Brief Summary: Adam's Venture is basically a poor man's version of Indiana Jones or Uncharted. Adam is searching for The Garden of Eden and must solve a number of puzzles in the process.

Like: The puzzles are interesting and challenging enough to make them interesting. Unfortunately, there is a lot of repetition with the puzzles, and some are timing dependent, which is not good for this game.I enjoyed the background music as well.

Dislike: This game is not horrible, but it is also not good. The short explanation of the problem is that it lacks polish. It's more than that though. The game has some of the worst controls that I have ever used in a video game. You never know exactly which direction Adam will move in when a particular key is pressed unless you go ahead an press that key. Jumping is atrocious and you will often find Adam rebounding off of things that he can actually jump onto if you try hard enough. The character models are sub-par, the voice acting is cheesy, and there are really only a small number of puzzles which get repeated over and over with slight variations.

Replayability: I may end up removing this criterion from my reviews, because it is very subjective and what replayability is, is up for debate (plus, it's not even in the dictionary). This game has extremely low replayability. Frankly, it was kind of hard to get through the first time and the annoyances, repetitious puzzles, and low quality of the game make it not worth revisiting.